Chapter 9
I found Margot that afternoon.
Small farmhouse.
No guards.
No grandeur.
She opened the door and stared.
For one second, she looked exactly like Elise.
Not face.
Expression.
Disappointment mixed with love.
“August.”
“Margot.”
Then she hugged me.
Unexpected.
I held her.
Eight years vanished badly.
Not completely.
Enough.
Inside, she placed a small recorder on the table.
“Elise.”
My throat tightened.
“Before?”
“Two weeks before she died.”
I sat.
Margot pressed play.
My wife’s voice.
Weak.
Still sharp.
“August, if you’re hearing this, then either Margot finally stopped being angry or I underestimated how stubborn everyone is.”
I laughed through pain.
Typical Elise.
She explained Thomas.
The lies.
The succession pressure.
The threat around her illness.
Then something I did not expect.
“I stayed quiet because I thought protecting August from his brother would keep the family together.”
I closed my eyes.
Another person filtering truth for love.
Then:
“That was wrong.”
She admitted it.
Good.
“If Thomas learns silence works, he’ll use it again.”
He had.
For years.
Elise continued.
“August has one weakness.”
I almost smiled.
“Family.”
Of course.
“He forgives access long after trust is gone.”
That hurt.
Accurate.
“He thinks removing someone from his heart requires removing them from the room first.”
Margot looked at me.
I hated both sisters for knowing me.
The recording ended with one instruction.
“If Thomas ever moves against August through family, tell him this: blood is a reason to ask one more question, not a reason to stop asking.”
Silence.
That sentence could have prevented half my life.
Margot then handed me the real item Reed wanted.
Not the recorder.
A list.
Thomas’s private network.
Captains.
Garage staff.
Estate managers.
Men who owed him loyalty.
Some still active.
One name was circled by Elise.
REED.
His son.
Of course.
Thomas had been preparing Reed long before his death.
May you like
The fire was not the start.
It was Reed trying to protect the legacy he inherited.
